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(0)Peter Francis James
1) Native son
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The story of a young African American man caught in a downward spiral after murdering a white woman in a monment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930's, it is an unsparing reflection of the poverty and hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and what it means to be black in America.
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First published in 1958, this novel tells the story of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo (Ibo) community who is banished for accidentally killing a clansman. The novel covers the seven years of his exile to his return, providing an inside view of the intrusion of white missionaries and colonial government into tribal Igbo society in the 1890s.
3) Run
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Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted sons' career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities.
4) Eclipse
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The spellbinding story of an American lawyer who takes on a nearly impossible case--the defense of an African freedom fighter against his corrupt government's charge of murdering three PetroGlobal workers.
5) Monster
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While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
6) Old Yeller
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A timeless American classic and one of the most beloved children?s books ever written, Old Yeller is a Newbery Honor Book that explores the poignant and unforgettable bond between a boy and the stray dog who becomes his loyal friend.
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The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
8) Road dogs
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Gentleman/banker-robber Jack Foley is back in prison doing a thirty-year sentence after a week-long escape. Brought in by Karen Sisco, US marshal, who got her man after being abducted with the escapees, Jack and Karen have a thing for each other, and Karen arrests him only after a meaningful 'time'out' together. Jack is resigning himself to doing time, lots of it, and he seems to have a friendly and easy control over the hardened criminals he is imprisoned...
10) Red at the Bone
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"Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier,...
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Two leading spiritual masters share their wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity, sharing personal stories and teachings about the science of profound happiness and the daily practices that anchor their emotional and spiritual lives. --Publisher
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Spanning six decades of the 1800s, this mesmerizing story is a fictional biography of Marie Laveau--one of the most haunting characters in New Orleans' history. Part of a long line of voodoo priestesses and healers, Marie tells of the mystery, passion, and violence that pattern her life. Like her grandmother, Marie sees visions from an early age. She never knew her mother, who practiced a spiritualism so potent she was murdered by those who feared...
13) Scorpions
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After reluctantly taking on the leadership of the Harlem gang, the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his enemies treat him with respect when he acquires a gun--until a tragedy occurs.
15) The Dream Bearer
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David Curry doesn't know what to make of his father, Reuben, who's violent out bursts and chilling nightmares torment his family. His older brother, Tyrone, says Reuben is crazy. But lately, even Tyrone isn't acting like himself. Then David meets the mysterious Mr. Moses, who tells him that dreams might be the only things we have that are real. And it is Mr. Moses's gift of dreams that gives David a new way to see inside his father's troubled heart....
16) Dirty work
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Dirty Work is the story of two men, strangers-one white, the other black. Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, the two men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital.Over the course of a day and a night, Walter James and Braiden Chaney talk of memories, of passions, of fate.
With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes mostly about love in a story about the waste...
17) Fatal flaw
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Some victims deserve nothing less than the truth . . .Ethically adventurous Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl usually does the right thing, but often for the wrong reasons. When old law school classmate Guy Forrest is accused of murdering his beautiful lover, Hailey Prouix, in their Main Line love nest, Carl agrees to represent him while keeping silent about his own prior romantic involvement with the victim, and his present determination to see that...
18) Heaven's price
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Loveswept volume 1
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A best-selling author known for her steamy, modern romances, Sandra Brown creates vivid portraits of flesh and blood characters. With her clever, clear plotting, she glowingly captures couples as they discover new passions. Fiery Blair Simpson's only ambition in life is dancing, but knee injuries force her to postpone her promising career on Broadway for six long months. Seeking a quieter life by moving to a small town, she focuses on her recovery...
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The electoral campaign of a Southern governor for the presidency of the United States. Narrated by a half-black campaign staffer, the novel follows the governor--ably assisted by his dynamic wife, a lawyer--as he mixes calculation with sincerity, dodges a draft-controversy bullet, gorges on barbecues, poaches off others' plates, seduces the occasional innocent bystander and confronts the resulting sex scandals.
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In the groundbreaking tradition of his award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a highly readable, powerful novel about the rules for success for young men, especially those navigating coming of age while Black.
Share this book in the classroom, in a father-son reading group, or as a summer reading (or anytime) choice that's likely to spark conversation and be a favorite.
"When the proprietor
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